Dhaka, Jan. 7 -- The fourteen Pacific Island countries - Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, Cook Islands and Niue - have traditionally been close partners of the US and its allies, in particular Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. There are also French overseas territories--New Caledonia and French Polynesia--which are members of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), a grouping formed in 1971 to advocate for the shared interests of the region globally. However, this strategic paradigm is slowly evolving into a larger paradigm. Analyst Mulyanto has now pointed out that China. India, Indonesia and South Korea are now also scrambling for ...